Loss of parking areas will require greater use of shuttles on peak days

DEL MAR  Crews broke ground Monday on a four-year habitat restoration project near the Del Mar Fairgrounds that will eliminate 1,250 parking spots at the venue, forcing greater use of shuttles on peak days of thoroughbred racing and the San Diego County Fair.

With bulldozers as a backdrop, fairgrounds President Frederick Schenk called the ground breaking a “symbolic beginning” to a new era that will change the look and feel of the area.

Instead of being almost fully fronted by parking lots of brown dirt, the fairgrounds will soon share part of its border with a swath of revived wetlands and sage scrub. For more than four decades, the space has been used as overflow parking, damaging sensitive areas that abut the San Dieguito River.

The restoration is part of an agreement last fall between the fairgrounds and the California Coastal Commission that allows the fairgrounds to continue using some of the area for parking in exchange for restoring some of the habitat. But it calls for the elimination of more parking areas if upcoming studies show the fairgrounds could effectively handle the cars in other ways.

The restoration area is on the southeast side of the fairgrounds along Jimmy Durante Boulevard. It will reduce the total number of spots from 10,350 to 9,100, a drop of more than 12 percent.

On Monday, fairgrounds Chief Executive Tim Fennell said the project culminates 12 years of negotiations with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other environmental agencies.

The San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club filed suit last month seeking to have more of the sensitive area around the fairgrounds protected.

On Monday, chapter Chairman David Grubb said his group is happy to see some restoration begin, even if it won’t be as extensive as they want.

He also called last November’s pact between the fairgrounds and the Coastal Commission “a landmark agreement.”